> Louis Proyect wrote: > >Hong Kong twin bill at the Anthology of Film Archives > >In the audience was Doug Henwood, who told me > >that he had never seen a Hong Kong movie before. I assured him that he > >would at least find the experience unforgettable. There would be no > >mistaking John Woo's "Bullet to the Head," which Doug squirmed through from > >beginning to end, for an Eric Rohmer movie. > > Oh, I laughed between squirms too. The violence was so extraordinary > it was hard to know how to take it. The gender politics of the movie > were quite strange - there were only two women of any consequence in > the cast, and both were near-mute ciphers; > Doug Woo is not known for strong women characters. In fact, Tsui Hark's *A Better Tomorrow 3*, which is Tsui's Vietnam film (he grew up there) that displaces Hong Kong by re-creating the fall of Saigon and a film that functions as a prequel to Woo's renowned *A Better Tomorrow*, takes Woo to task for his less than assertive female characterizations. Gender issues are significant for Tsui, and with *ABT3*, he adds a strong female protagonist to teach the male lead just about everything he knows. From the prequel, we learn that Mark's (Chow Yun-fat) trademarks in Woo's *ABT*, shades and duster, are Kit's (Anita Mui) invention. She also shoots with two weapons (as Mark/Chow does in the Woo films) and saves Mark twice. Of course, as a pre-scripted character tied to previous incarnations of the story yet appearing in neither, her death is guaranteed by picture's end. Michael Hoover
